Zone 5 High Desert- planning questions

[MadiMamacita]

I'm so excited to start my garden for this year- I had ambitions last year, but my baby was born in Jan and I got behind and it never took off. (ps I am a total newbie)
I think I am in zone 5, in the high desert. We have late spring and early fall frosts.

Can I start my seeds yet?? we have a REALLY short growing season so I'd like to get a head start if possible, but I don't want to start too soon!

I was thinking tomatoes, squash, cantaloupe, green beans, snap peas, peppers.. (thats what I have seeds for already) maybe some lettuce? spinach? strawberries? (I know at least strawberries need a plant to start, not seeds..)

I have some space inside for starting these little guys, not a ton, but some. I'm planning to convert one of our unused bedrooms to a plant room until it gets warm enough outside. DH is building raised beds in the sunniest part of our back yard. I was thinking a high table under lots of lights- can I use any bright lights, or do they have to be grow lights? I don't have a ton of money to throw at this, either..

[steffanie3]

Hi,

I wouldn't start what you are suggesting just yet. I would think your tomatoes and peppers probably at the end of the month. One problem with starting too early is huge plants, I would not do squash or melons very far out, they get huge and they do it pretty quickly. Spinach and peas are cool whether crops that I direct seed, they can take some cold, I think the same with lettuce, but they are not as cold hardy. I haven't heard of starting beans in containers, but that doesn't mean you can. There is link somewhere on here that has good information about how many weeks out to start and you can put in your last frost date and it will calculate when to start seeds.
*Here it is http://bioarray.us/Skippy%27s%20plan...0calendar.html

What the gardening club here recommends is a cool florescent bulb and a warm one, that is supposed to give a full spectrum without buying expensive grow lights. I think I just did warm last year and it worked fine, but if I need to replace any I would mix them.

[MadiMamacita]

great! thanks for your suggestions!
Where do you find out your last frost date? is it an average or do they use last year's date? Our weather is very unpredictable. Once last august it was 100 during the day and it actually froze that night.

[steffanie3]

I just searched for last frost date and my zipcode, it came up on our town website. If it wasn't there I would have just went with a nearby town, should give you a pretty good guess. Your local extension office could tell you too.